Public prosecutor Supreme Public Prosecutor's Office Goran Ilic stated on Tuesday evening (September 2) that the case police intervention at the Faculty of Sports and Physical Education in Novi Sad on Monday morning shows the problem of captive institutions in Serbia.
He told Insider TV that the Police Internal Control Service, the Protector of Citizens and the Prosecutor's Office would have to investigate whether there was an excess of police authority, but the lack of independence and impartiality of institutions prevents effective control of police work.
The MUP announced that the police in Novi Sad reacted because the gathered group of people "intended" to forcefully enter the premises of the Faculty of Sports and Physical Education (DIF).
"This story is essentially a story about a captured state and a state where there are no independent institutions. If the Internal Control Service within the police functioned in the way it should function, it would have to determine whether the application of police powers was justified and inform the public about it in a report," Ilić said.
He added that the Service can act on its own initiative, on the basis of citizens' reports or on the basis of any information or knowledge that police powers have been exceeded, but also that the Internal Control Service is not the only way to control the work of the police.
"There is also external control through the appropriate committee of the National Assembly - the Committee for Security, which should also control the legality of the actions of the police. You also have independent institutions, first of all the protector of citizens. The Public Prosecutor's Office also belongs to those external bodies, the bodies of external supervision, but in a situation where there is a suspicion that a criminal offense has been committed," he stated.
The prosecution must react.
Three students publicly accused members of the Unit for the Protection of Certain Objects and Persons (JZO) that after the protest in mid-August, they took them to the garage of the Government of Serbia in Belgrade, threatened them, beat them, and broke their phones.
Student Nikolina Sinđelić went public and accused the commander of that unit, Marko Kričko, of threatening her with rape, reports N1.
In this case, the prosecutor's office did not react to the public accusations, but the students filed a criminal complaint.
Ilić said that "the prosecutor's office should and must react when it learns that a criminal offense has been committed. Of course, that knowledge must be credible and serious. The prosecutor's office cannot react to every report, every voice or rumor that a criminal offense has been committed. I don't think the point is whether the prosecutor's office reacted or the students filed a criminal complaint. The bottom line is what the outcome of the proceedings will be," he said.
He said that the prosecution's decision is based on evidence, but that the prosecution is usually not ready to act in those cases in a fair, efficient and correct manner.
"But in any case, if there is any legitimate suspicion that these people have abused police powers, they should be prosecuted for the crime of abuse," he said.
No one was responsible because he was implementing the Government's decision
Ilić also spoke about criminal proceedings and the investigation being conducted in connection with the fall of the canopy at the railway station in Novi Sad on November 1 last year.
"When it comes to this last case, the public prosecution's final leap will be whether it will be able to prove that in a situation where the government orders an individual to make a decision, to conclude some kind of contract, is that individual responsible, or is the responsibility much broader," said the public prosecutor.
He pointed out that the prosecutor's office faces a number of challenges.
"One concerns the constant pressures that the Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime faces through numerous publications by pro-Government tabloids or some created campaigns via social networks. On the other hand, I must say that our judicial practice does not know of a case where someone was held accountable for implementing the Government's decision," Ilić said.
Goran Ilić is the only prosecutor of the Supreme Public Prosecutor's Office who signed a statement in April that was supported by more than 500 judges and prosecutors.
In that document, it is stated that the statements of the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, in which he announced that he would personally file a report against the public prosecutor, are "blatant obstruction of the public prosecutor in the performance of the prosecutor's function, and therefore constitute the act of committing the criminal offense of Obstruction of Justice."
Sources: Insider/N1
